GOSHEN Â? Homeowners will finally be reimbursed for medical and cleanup expenses caused by a local gasoline leak.

Dozens of people blame leaking gas tanks at the 7-Eleven on South Main in Goshen for health problems. They filed a lawsuit. Friday, a judge approved a $20 million settlement.

There were no objections to the settlement. It took a matter of minutes to approve the settlement reached by the judge last December.

Homeowners and 7-Eleven say they're happy with it and are glad the issue is resolved. But the damage caused by the gas leaks still has to be erased.

Six years of waiting is over.

Â?I really can't complain,Â? said Chris Neeley. Â?Anything right now would be ideal.Â?

Neeley lived on Jackson Street when the 7-Eleven gas tanks leaked between 1996 and 2001.

Â?It's scary because a lot of the side effects are the development of cancer or leukemia or something like that,Â? he said.

His family and many others got sick and blamed the leaks.

Â?We got out as quickly as we could,Â? he said.

But getting the issue resolved wasn't a quick fix. The lawsuit was filed in 2002, but the $20 million settlement was approved nearly six years later.

Â?We are pleased that the matter has now been resolved,Â? said the plaintiffÂ?s attorney John Ulmer.

Â?We are putting this behind us and moving forward and we are very pleased about the final outcome,Â? said Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, in a telephone interview.

7-Eleven is one of three companies that have to pay $15 million to homeowners and another $5 million to clean up the area.

Â?This is something we would have done no matter what the outcome was, to clean up this particular site,Â? Chabris said. Â?In the meantime, we took out the old equipment, the steel single wall tank, and we replaced it many years ago Â? several years ago Â? and we are confident that we wonÂ?t be having these kinds of problems again.Â?

Some homeowners say it's a little late.

Â?They should have gotten it all cleaned up before they did, because they got all these people that are sick.Â?

A spokesperson for 7-Eleven says the company is going to invest several millions more for cleanup.

If the decision is not appealed, medical surveys will be sent to people who lived on Jackson Street between January 1996 and December 2007. That information will be used to divide the settlement.